Maintaining your fresh blog [interview]

Various blog tips

Last week this short interview recorded with Phil Dobbie from BNET. We covered a variety of topics.Includes keeping your blog meets the fresh, the audience, keeping your voice-of-mouth, your blog over the long haul, through controversy and much. for interview 13 minutes we are sure many of the ground.

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Autoresponders on ' Roids

Blogging for dollars

This post was written by an Internet marketing Ninja — professional online marketer for major Internet brand, who is sharing his undercover here at ProBlogger tips.So we're curious?!

Darren wrote a lot about how he developed his own autoresponder sequences on blogs. But I'd like to take this a step further and describe how you can activate the auto responder well into a large one.

When you ask users to give you their email addresses, you must save the process frictionless as possible if you can, ask for just the address itself. If you need really, ask for their name so you can customize the messages — but that's it.

Considering you're already only have received a piece of information, how you segment your audience?

Existing clients of section a: match your email address in the orders list and see if the person is existing clients or not. Segment b: blog Commenter: If you want people to have their email addresses when they post comments, matches against to determine how they are connected to the blog. Segment c: community members: If your blog contains a forum, chances are you'll need to register the user's email addresses from your signup process in the Forum.Use this option to determine if they are already part of your community. Segment D: new subscription: this is a bucket for anyone who won't fit in the above sections.These are the faces fresh in your blog.

Apparently, follow a process similar to the one generated here ?????. However, you must create a specific sequence for each section.For example, you might welcome a new subscription by sharing with them some of the most popular posts first.Then, you can send them a copy of the latest newsletter, you may submit. Finally, it proposed in one of your products, or you may simply send the customer an existing content they gave you their email, as they are already known-sales cycle, sell more.

As a starting point, try to put yourself in the shoes of the segment and the process you want to see if they had.

This is where it gets a bit more difficult, and sometimes even a bit confusing.It's time to refine the autoresponder sequence to find the optimal conversion rate for each section.Some of the considerations you need to take into the examination could include:

Sequence of events: free ebook – > links to popular blog posts — > newsletter > last-paid delivery time ebookEmail: during working hours/off hours/weekday/weekendDelay between emails: once a month, one week, one day, one hourEmail format: HTML, rich text or plain copy textEmail: long or short, informative or focused sales

Warning: when you're testing, you can easily get out of control to create variations. for example, if there were three different instances of the test for each of four, you will have 12 tests running simolciot. and if they have four emails each, you will need to write emails 48! start with what you think is correct, and I'm a long time to develop your approach — just like Darren has.

Now I'm afraid I'm not sure any email services offers this level of depth when it comes to allocating some lists based on customer profiles (if anyone knows of one, let me know) so you may need something custom created for you to take an e-mail address, the user will decide which piece and assign it to the appropriate person to the list. However, a little investment in front you can pay huge dividends of reader-conversions are ongoing.

Even if you only receive a handful or subscribers every day, putting them through a focused autoresponder program has been tailored to them is, undoubtedly, will increase your conversions.

Stay tuned from most Internet marketing Ninja posts a secretive — professional online marketer for major Internet brand, who is sharing more of his tips at ProBlogger undercover here during the coming weeks.

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Blog: how karma and some good deeds blogs can your range of motion

Promoting a blog

This is a guest post by Joshua Noerr of joshuanoerr.com.

Since I was very young, I was told, is displayed, the importance of giving back and do things that other people always already felt how. highest person's character is the amount of service they are providing to others. In fact, your service to others is the cornerstone of your legacy long after you're gone.

I believe that even a person capable of body and soul, I have a certain level of commitment to help others. not everyone has the capabilities to do, or most of you do.My way to say ' thank you ' for being blessed with all of these things is by giving back.

When I started blogging earlier this year, I knew it was the wind carrying it into what to do, just not really know how.

One day, I was ready to write a post when I had an idea ... I said to myself, "How about sharing all the great ?????? blogs with your readers?" it looks like a pretty good idea.

So I heard from my original post, shared blogs five was read that month, with a post showing some commentary on exactly what I felt these blogs are so awesome. almost immediately jumped on my traffic. Bloggers themselves stopped by to say "thank you" and read what I wrote about them as well as my regular readers would liked that expose it to new content.

I have since done so my blog fixed monthly feature, and it is always extremely popular. I get the Spike traffic, increase of subscribers, and best of all — start new relationships with other bloggers really cold.Looks like a pretty good way to go for me.

Blogger whose work I read regularly, for which I have the utmost respect, publish a post call it ask for help.

She was the goal of making it to the world blog and inviting was donations to help her get there.I thought it was great!I liked the fact that she has built strong community at her blog that she felt comfortable to ask them to help her reach her goal.

This blogger was actually the very first person to post comments on my blog (other than my MOM!), as was read the call for contributions, I recalled how I felt that day she did for me to feel like a star rock blogs, though only one small comment!Remember that feeling, I decided that I wanted to help her get to Vegas.

So I posted my readers operation called. I told them what was going on, linked to a post to ask for donations, and hit the button to the publication with a huge smile on my face.

The reaction was almost immediately — and overwhelming!People loved the idea, just as he did, he wanted to help.There were so many wonderful comments from people in exceptional. After all said and done, the blogger has reached its goal, invite its world tour blog.

Now I don't take credit for the goal is reached-I'm pretty sure its talent was something to do with it! nevertheless, I felt like I was part of something, and that my blog had a hand in someone's life a little better.

That day was also the date, the highest traffic day of the blog my people Tweeted the post, stumbled, Dugg it shared and several new subscriptions. I met some new people this is not my goal ... to do what I did, but it was quite nice side!

It's your turn! ever done anything like this before? what kind of results you saw something planned for the future?? good deeds to hearing how you have enjoyed your blog.

Just remember, your blog is a great platform for making someone's day, or assistance to others in a positive manner, I think it is a wonderful thing, who knows, the simple act of kindness might cause more people to your door. sounds like a win win situation to me!

Joshua Noerr is former MMA fighter turned blogger powerlifter. is the owner or partnered in several blogs on various topics, including personal development, health and fitness.

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Three problems that make me leave the blog in three seconds

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This guest post is by the Blog Tyrant.

“Wow that’s an interesting looking title you’ve got there, I think I’ll check out that blog.”

That’s what I think. But three seconds later I’m gone, never to return again.

Despite racking your brains for amazing titles, composing literary marvels to dazzle your readers, and spending hours on your blog’s design, you still lost me. In this post I’m going to show you three serious problems that’ll make me leave your blog in three seconds (or less). Be very careful to fix these if they’re present on your site.

I need to open this post by reiterating a simple truth. It is a truth that applies to all businesses, not just blogs. And that truth is:

It’s true that one loyal reader (or customer) is worth more than thousands of one-time visitors. One loyal reader will do more for your blog than thousands of one-offs will.

Think about it for a second. Who is it that leaves comments, links to you on their own blogs, talks about you to their friends, Diggs and Stumbles your latest posts, and, eventually, buys whatever products you sell from your blog?

It’s the loyal guys. It isn’t the thousands of mindless drones who just sit there clicking Stumble, Stumble, Stumble, all day long and not interacting with the pages they land on. It’s your loyal readers. Sure, there are some exceptions like affiliate and product websites where you’re just sending super-targeted traffic to the landing page. But we’re talking about blogs, and on blogs, it’s the community that matters.

The three mistakes I’ll explain here will kill your chances of gaining loyal readers. Even if you answer readers’ questions and create content that will help enrich their lives, you are going to lose them if these silly little mistakes appear on your blog. If they do, fix them as soon as possible.

Let’s get into the bulk of the post and sort out these injuries that are crippling your blog. And as always, if you have others that I’ve missed, please leave a comment—your advice might help someone take their blog to the next level.

One of the first things I do on a blog is check out how many comments there are. A lack of comments instantly turns me off, because I consider comments to be a good metric for determining how useful the articles are. If my initial scan turns up lots of “0 comments” notices, I almost always just close the window.

In my first ProBlogger guest post, on how to make your blog addictive, I talked about social proof and the fact that people need to see that other people are involved on a blog before they themselves get involved. Human beings really don’t like being first—it’s too scary.

How can you fix it?
How can you get more comments on your posts? I talked a little bit about that in my article on blog commenting, but here are a few extra ideas.

Change the default “0 comments” text.
The first thing you should do is change that horrid default text that says “0 comments” to something more interesting and engaging. On Blog Tyrant posts where there are zero comments, the note reads, “Leave a comment, handsome.” That’s much more personal than “0 comments.” To change this text on your blog, just go to your Main Index Template file in your template editor, find the section called php comments_popup_link, and change the relevant areas. I also change the other text in that section, so instead of saying 5 Comments it says 5 Intelligent Opinions.Ask for comments.
The next thing you need to do is specifically ask for comments. Design your articles in such a way that they really encourage people to leave comments and share their thoughts. This has a lot to do with not answering all their questions in the post itself, but can also mean putting a question in the title or the first paragraph of your post. There is a danger here, however, as if you constantly ask for comments, and no one leaves any, you’ll start to look even more lonely.Create a “buddy” group.
This is something I used to do years and years ago, and it worked quite well. Find a group of blogs in your niche that don’t get many comments, and send them an email explaining that you’ll leave comments on their posts if they’ll do the same for you. It works really well.

If you’ve been blogging for a long time now, and you still aren’t getting many comments, it might be time to ask some hard questions. In my post on why blogging is a waste of time, I touched on the issue that many bloggers are afraid to ask: are you sure blogging is the best career path for you? Most of the time, however, you can fix a lack of comments with a few little changes here and there. But make sure you do, because “0 comments” looks horrid.

The second thing that makes me leave your blog super-fast is when your template or theme is ugly, hard to navigate, and has been tweaked so much that it no longer works correctly. If I had a dollar for every time I visited a blog that had been tweaked to the point of looking terrible, I’d be as rich as Bill Gates. The reason I find this so offensive is because it shows that you don’t really care about your users’ experience.

Image credit: duerschi

One of the ways you can make it in the blogosphere is by appearing bigger than you are until you actually get there. And part of that is having a slick theme that functions perfectly for your readers. A lot of experts say that the content is the only thing that matters, but I personally think that’s garbage. I’m sure there are hundreds of excellent articles out there that I haven’t read because the site was too hard to get around, or too ugly to take seriously.

How can I fix it?
Because this issue of an ugly theme covers so many different areas of your blog, I want to offer a few broad suggestions that might help you.

Get a custom theme designed.
The first thing that I’ll tell anyone who is going to take their blog to the next level is to get a custom theme designed for it. This is an amazing way to brand your blog and make it unique. However, I’m aware that it’s quite expensive and probably not an option for most beginner bloggers. If you fall into that category, move on to the next point.At least get a logo designed.
Big corporate logos that need to represent a brand can cost tens of thousands of dollars. We aren’t there yet. Go to Google and type in “cheap logos” and spend $30 to $100 getting a pretty simple logo made for your blog. It won’t change your world, but it will help your readers take you a bit more seriously.Choose a simple, clean, and mostly white theme.
The next option is to choose a theme that’s very simple, clean, and mostly white. Forget about black backgrounds and swirling colors everywhere, white is what people are used to reading on, and anything else is upsetting to the eyes. Your theme should be content-focused and really simple; don’t distract your readers with too much other than elements that are going to get them to subscribe or read more content.Don’t edit it yourself unless you make it perfect.
WordPress is fantastic because it lets you add plugins and edit the theme to add social media icons and other things to your blog. The problem is that people edit the template themselves and end up making it look like a pre-school painting. Unless you know how to make the spacing and graphics work well together, please don’t edit it. Go to Rent a Coder and hire someone with knowledge to do it for a few dollars.

Take the time to present your content in a beautiful and easily navigable way. Don’t clutter the eye, and definitely make sure any additions that you make to the design enhance your blog branding.  It is very important that you appear as professional as possible.

The last problem is probably the most serious, and unfortunately it’s the hardest one to solve. When a blog has nothing new to offer, readers can smell it a mile off. In fact, by a quick glance of the front page you can usually tell whether or not you are going to find something new on a blog. And if there’s nothing new to read, the window gets closed pretty fast.

Let’s be clear about something here. You don’t need to have some amazing new idea like Stuff White People Like. That whole concept is totally original and something that I’ve never seen before.

What you need to do is present your work in a different way from your competitors; you need to differentiate yourself from them. Go and have a look at your blog and ask yourself why a visitor would read your content over another blogger’s. Unless you can think of some solid reasons as to why your offering’s different, you aren’t going to retain me.

How do I fix it?
Fixing this problem can be hard if you didn’t start your blog with some original elements. That being said, there are some things you can to do differentiate yourself as you go along.

Find an angle.
Everything you write about should have an angle. Even if you’re writing about a topic that has been done to death, you can still usually find a semi-unique angle to present it from. That angle needs to percolate through your blog and change the way you write titles, opening paragraphs, draw conclusions, and so on.Brand yourself differently.
Closely related to the angle idea is the idea of branding yourself differently. People usually think that branding is just having a different logo, but it’s so much more than that. It is how your blog is perceived by others and where it is positioned in the market. Take Subway as an example. This brand is positioned as the only healthy option in the fast food industry, and as a result it’s killing this market space. The branding is all centered around why Subway is a healthy choice and will help you lose weight. Make sure you brand your blog in a way that promotes your angle and helps readers to perceive you as different and valuable.Find out what others aren’t doing.
One way I find ideas for blog posts is to go to the major websites in my niche, look at their most popular posts, and see what they did—but also what they didn’t do. If you can identify something that’s missing, and tap into that, you’ll usually get people interested. This is even more likely if you realize that what the blogger has written about is incomplete or incorrect, and you can challenge them on it. I think one reason my blog post on selling a blog went to the front page of Delicious.com and got picked up by newspapers is because it didn’t hold anything back—a lot of the other articles out there seemed to not quite show you the whole process. That is now a theme on my blog: share everything.

There really aren’t any original ideas out there. People have been thinking for a very long time now, and chances are that if we think of something, someone else has already thought it. The task, then, is to present your ideas in an original way or make it seem like you are different from the next blog. Unless you can do that, people will have no reason to stay on your blog, or come back once they’ve left.

What makes you leave a blog super-fast? Is it the design? Is it the grammar mistakes? Or is it that you just feel like you’ve seen it all before?

The Blog Tyrant has sold several blogs for large sums of money and earns a living by relying solely on the Internet. His blog is all about helping you dominate your blog and your blog’s niche, and only includes strategies that he has tried on his own websites. Follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his feed for all the juice.

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World blog: Paradox blog action day Case Study

General

Today, Darren and thousands of other bloggers are congregating in Las Vegas for blog world.It is fitting that blog action day should overlap the fields that you specify with the world's largest blogging Conference. especially blog action day, which focuses on water.

When we think about water issues, we need to close our eyes, the African desert converse or Australian outback: only we need to think like blog world, Las Vegas.

"Watershow", Las Vegas, by pgl

Las Vegas is a modern city, developed which is built in the desert. as expected, he is facing serious water problems. Like many communities worldwide, Nevada farm now drought, and Las Vegas struggling to source water from the State to meet the needs of its population rising fixed and its tourist industry booming business.

Tourism industry supports, a large portion of the conferences held in the city, thousands every year.Including the blog world.

Of course, we need a place to hold conferences vogas built for such events.But this is paradoxical, while I blog about water issues for blog action day, thousands of bloggers you further stressing the city's water supply dry perilously name of blogs.

Remind us — if we Vegas enjoys world blog or follow it from a distance — that we all have a part of the responsibility of water availability and quality, we have to accept this responsibility. These are the General issues.They're not limited by national borders, countries, professions or socio-economic boundaries.

Effects of water conservation efforts also are global.What you can do to conserve water and preserve the quality of the water, will make the difference far beyond your own back yard.What can I do to raise the awareness of it will also effect. among developed countries, there is ignorance in water-related issues.

"Las Vegas" by chuckb

When I started this post vltzmon, my search for Vegas, Nevada + water became up results for raw water consumers such as water, water parks, gardens and features water than water authorities or articles on the topics of water which on the first page of results suggested that there was any problem with the water in Las Vegas — exactly the opposite. no information about water issues and realities, communities find it difficult to identify the problem, and certainly take action on it.

He not only Vegas: water shortage problems and quality in your city, your, and your country. maybe's day to think about what you can do to take action in your own way these as blogger rural area that only experienced mhalishot, long decade of drought, I'm curious: what problems your water and local communities facing now?

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